1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunication, and more particularly to voice chat services over telephone networks.
2. Background of the Invention
Live “chat” on the Internet has become one of the most popular ways to communicate. Participants of Internet chat often express their ideas freely because each of them may remain anonymous. Chatters on the Internet can discuss just about anything during an Internet chat session. There are literally thousands of chat rooms, each of which can be dedicated for a specific topic. Each chat room is also known as a channel. Internet chat channels are maintained by different people on different servers around the world. Some servers have a small number of channels, other servers have a large number of channels. Chatters go “online” to chat using a computer over the Internet.
During an Internet chat session, chatters do not actually hear each other in the chat rooms. Instead, they communicate with each other using their keyboards. A chatter types words on his or her computer during an Internet chat session, and other people can see those words on their computer immediately, and vice versa. Many chatters can participate in the “conversation” simultaneously. The chatters can be located any where in the world.
Although Internet chat services are very popular, they continue to suffer from several shortcomings, which include: (1) each of the chatters must have a computer with certain requirements; (2) the participants must have access to the Internet; and (3) communications among the participants are limited to text messages that are input through their keyboards.
Currently, voice chat services are not available to telephone users over existing telephone networks. Using the current “3-way calling” technology, more than two persons may participate in a conference call using their telephones. The parties of the conference call normally know the identities and telephone numbers of other parties to enable the conference call to take place. Thus, the 3-way calling technology is not desirable for voice chat services because participants could not remain anonymous. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,912,874 and 4,232,198 disclose a conference arrangement and a device for use in establishing telephone conference calls, respectively. These references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Accordingly, there is a need to expand Internet chat services to telephone networks. There is a need for a system and a method through which people may anonymously participate in a voice chat with using a PSTN telephone, a cellular telephone, and a digital telephone.